Brush drying competition

Messages
5,256
Location
Brighton
The contestants:
Bristle Brushwerks badger brush (81.5g dry)
MÜHLE 35K256 synthetic brush (74.7g dry)

Procedure:
Let brush soak in warm water for 10 minutes.
Load with Boots soap for 30 seconds
Bowl lather until happy
Remove lather from brush manually
Give brush a good swirl in warm water
Rinse the knot under a vigorous cold tap for at least 30 seconds
Give the brush a gentle squeeze
Flick the brush violently 30 times until no water comes out
Wipe brush gently on soft dry towel four times.
Give handle a gentle rub with a microfibre cloth.
Put the brush knot up.
Wait until dry.

Initially quite frequently, later at larger intervals, I weighed both brushes using a scale with 0.1g resolution - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Smart-Weigh-SWS600-Pocket-Digital/dp/B00GS8LWIW/
After the above procedure, the MÜHLE held 3.6g of Water, the Bristle Brushwerks 8.4g - more than twice the amount.
At each measurement, I recorded the current weight (CW), then based on the known dry weight (DW) and wet weight (WW) I calculated the amount of water left in the brush (AW) and how wet the brush is in percent (PW) as such:
AW=CW-DW
PW=100-(WW-CW)/(WW-DW)*100

Here are the results:

BadgerSynthDrying.png

The MÜHLE synthetic was bone dry after 29 hours, just a bit longer than a day.
The badger took 3 and a half days (82 hours 30 minutes) to dry completely.
This was in the living room on not very humid warm summer days. The temperature was about 25℃, that's 32+25*1.8℉ if you need to know.
 
I got this result, same basic conclusion, badger is much slower than synth to dry.

30 mm finest two-band badger - held 6,65 grams of water after shave - 1,08 grams after 24 hours, felt dry to the touch - checked after 48 hours and knot was completely dry - no check after 36 hours

Synthetic 25 mm - not sure of model and fibre - held only 1,33 grams of water after shave - 0,19 grams after six hours - checked after 12 hours and the result was dry as can be

I guess men have been using badger and boar brushes for ages without any concern not sure if they constantly bought new brushes every five years or just kept on shaving with their soggy brushes :)
 
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In my bathroom I have two main valves that connect to the main water pipes in the lower floor. I noticed they always have a mild breeze of air coming from the holes. So I removed the decorative plates and positioned the brush holders right above the holes. This way my 2 brushes used in the last 48h get to dry faster from the breeze going towards the window.

I used to place wet brushes on the window sill but the cat likes to sit there. He knocked them over and occasionally contributed his sheddings in the knots. Thus my whole wind energy brush dryerâ„¢ idea. I think a USB powered laptop cooler would make a great brush dryer too.

 
Officer : So why are you carrying around a set of scales that only go up to 600g in 0.1g increments?

Me: Well I have got it to see how quickly my shaving brushes dry out. Trying to suss out the difference between a badger and a synth.

Officer: Get in the van. Just cos you have no obvious gear on you you are coming in for a bum search sonny! Shaving brush drying times my arse!
 
Well, the 24 mm Yaqi Tuxedo and the 24 mm Vigshaving Tuxedoish brushes were both dry when checking in the morning after 9 hours. (So far the Vighshaving Tuxedoish is looking like a winner because it only held about 0,8 gram after shave, would probably proved dry earlier than 9 hours if I had got up and checked in the middle of the night, but not that keen a shave scientist)
 
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It is a rather big 24 and after the 12 hour check still got 1,32 g left before we can call it dry. ((pseudo)science note: relative humidity in room has been a rather high 48 percent at 23 degrees today)
 
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